HDDs extremely hot in external dock

[FeijoaBoa]

Hi folks,

I've got a crappy unraid setup with an Intel NUC and a USB 4-drive hard disk dock, like this:

Only 2 bays are filled.

 

The disks are over-temp pretty much 100% of the time, and when I do big operations like parity checks then they get really hot (like 57C). There's not much airflow in the closet they're in, but the ambient temp there is the same as outside.

 

Are these docks known for being useless/hot? My theory is that a drive being screwed into a metal case is like having a giant heat sink, and sitting in a pastic dock (even an open one!) gives the heat nowhere to go. But then how come external hard drive enclosures never seem to have this issue?

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for continuing to use my NUC as an unraid server, so I don't need to buy a normal PC case? Inside the NUC is two SSDs being used as a cache, so there aren't any spare SATA ports either...

 

Cheers!

[JTS_1401]

I have the same issue. I think it is the plastic. The drives just get warm natural and with zero airflow the drive becomes hot. I use 12 volt lead acid batteries and bloweematrons to keep the drive at room temperature use.